Agenda item

This report details the areas covered by the Portfolio Holder for Educational Improvement. The areas within the portfolio are listed each time a Cabinet Member is invited to attend any of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees to be held to account. The Portfolio Holder for Educational Improvement works to support the Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services (Lead Member). 

Members received an overview of progress on the area within the terms of reference of this Committee and covered by the Portfolio Holder for Educational Improvement, as set out below:

• Review of the Council’s approach and support for school effectiveness
• Support for School Governors
• Post Ofsted Advisory Group
• And any other additional key strands of work as agreed with the Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services (Lead Member) to respond to emerging issues.

The Portfolio Holder for Educational Improvement, Councillor Tolhurst, then responded to Members’ questions and comments as follows: -

• Impact of the role of the Portfolio Holder – in response to a question about what impact the role of the Portfolio Holder for Educational Improvement had had and how Councillor Tolhurst carries out that role she explained that, in relation to Key Stage 2, although Medway was still 4% below the national average the results had been the best results ever achieved in Medway and were a 3% improvement on the previous year.  In addition, less schools were below the floor targets despite the targets being raised since the previous year.  She explained that this area was an ongoing challenge and further improvement was needed but that steady sustainable progress had been demonstrated.  In terms of her role she explained that she had regular dialogue with the School Improvement Team, Headteachers, Governors and parents and ensured that she was clear what the authority is delivering.

• Leadership – The Portfolio Holder confirmed that strong effective leadership was key and remained a local authority priority.  There was a need to positively champion improvement collectively and celebrate achievement.  In addition she highlighted some ways of strengthening governance, for example; improving governor training attendance which had risen to 74% from 53%, the development of a clerking service which could be brokered from schools to strengthen the role of governing body clerks, and brokering secondments from outstanding schools outside of the area to support Medway schools to improve.

• Draft School Improvement Strategy – The Portfolio Holder referred to the draft strategy appended to the report on test and examination results on the agenda and welcomed the strategy which she felt was clear, realistic, aspirational and set out the vision for Medway’s primary schools for the next two years.
  
  
• Recruitment – with reference to the current vacancy of the Assistant Director, School Effectiveness and Inclusion, the Portfolio Holder confirmed that there was no update on this at present but praised the work of the interim Assistant Director.  She added that recruitment generally was an issue as there was difficulty in recruiting teaching staff in Medway schools and reiterated the importance of positively championing improvement to encourage teachers to want to work in Medway schools.

• Key Stage 2 – in response to a question about why Key Stage 2 was still under performing compared to the good results achieved at other Key Stages, the Portfolio Holder reiterated that steady progress with Key Stage 2 had been made and that some schools had made significant progress, however, more work needed to be done to close the gap between Medway’s performance and the national average.

• Governor recruitment – In response to a question about how Medway can encourage the local community to become governors the Portfolio Holder confirmed that it is a role that requires dedicated and commitment but also gives people the opportunity to make a difference and have a real impact on their local community.  She added that support from Governor Services was strong with 86% of Medway schools buying into the service, which was helping to support new and existing Governors in their role.

• Exclusions – Reference was made to exclusion and what happens to those children and young people who are excluded in terms of their education.  The Portfolio Holder explained that when a child or young person is excluded, they are required to be provided with an alternative education provision and officers work closely with schools to ensure children and young people who do display challenging behaviour and have been or are at risk of being excluded are supported to maintain in an appropriate school setting.  The Portfolio Holder also undertook to ensure the committee were provided with details about exclusions in Medway.

• Working with academies – a Member asked how the Portfolio Holder and the local authority worked with academies to improve performance.  The Portfolio Holder responded that although academies were not required to work with the local authority, Medway did benefit from good working relationships between the Council and academies.  If an academy were not to improve and were to cause concern then the local authority would be required to flag those concerns with the Department for Education who would need to investigate and take action.

• Governance of Governing Bodies –In response to a question as to whether a policy could be produced to demonstrate how Governing Body governance should be carried out the Portfolio Holder explained that academies were entitled and able to set the governance arrangements of their school as they wished and therefore this was not possible to do.

• Children educated at home – the Portfolio Holder confirmed that children that are educated at home were monitored by the local authority. 

Decision:

The committee thanked the Portfolio Holder for her attendance.